The present invention relates to a bicycle simulator, namely, a static device designed to simulate use of a bicycle on the road.
Stationary bicycles for training of a conventional type comprise a rigid structure provided with base supports for resting thereof on a floor and a flywheel, which is carried by said structure and can be driven in rotation by the user by means of pedals, and is subject to the action of adjustable braking means. Training bicycles of this type are very widespread, but are not totally satisfactory, in the first place because their use gives to the user a sensation that is markedly different from that of normal riding of a bicycle on the road, where the cyclist must instead pay attention to maintaining a position of balance of the bicycle on the two points of contact of the wheels with the road. The total staticity of the structure of stationary training bicycles hence deprives the user of any need to pay attention to balance and renders use of the bicycle decidedly boring, with the consequence, proven by experience, that the use of training bicycles is often more tiring than that of a normal bicycle.
As an alternative to training bicycles of the type described above also very widespread are roller devices that enable use in a static position of a normal bicycle for use on roads. Said devices normally envisage that the bicycle rests on a floor with its front wheel and is instead kept with its rear wheel raised off the floor by means of a support on which the rear-wheel axle rests. The rear wheel engages a roller carried by the aforesaid support and pushed against the rear wheel with an adjustable force. Also in the case of said roller devices the sensation of the user during use is markedly different from that experienced during normal riding of a bicycle on the road, once again basically because the bicycle is kept by the aforesaid rear support in a stable rigid position.
In an attempt to provide bicycle simulators designed to give the user a sensation closer to that of real riding of a bicycle on the road, solutions have been proposed in which the frame of the bicycle simulator is supported in an articulated way on a base structure that rests on the floor, in such a way that it can tilt laterally. Bicycle simulators of this type are, for example, described in US 2007/0072744 A1 and in US 2008/0020908 A1. The frame of said bicycle simulators supports in a rotatable way a flywheel that can be driven in rotation via the pedals. Once again according to what is illustrated in said documents, rotation of the flywheel creates a gyroscopic balancing effect that helps the user to keep the frame of the bicycle simulator in the vertical position of equilibrium. Bicycle simulators of this type reproduce more closely the sensation of real riding of a bicycle on the road, but do not achieve said target fully in so far as the articulated connection between the base structure and the top frame is in any case far from able to simulate effectively the situation of the contact of the wheels on the road of a real bicycle.
It should also be noted that it is in general known to provide a conventional bicycle with a motor-driven flywheel to obtain a gyroscopic balancing effect that can help, for example, children or elderly people to find the right balance during use of a real bicycle on the road. Solutions of this type are illustrated in DE-U-88 04 997, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,314,225 B2, and 4,712,806.
The object of the present invention is to provide a bicycle simulator that will reproduce for the user a sensation substantially identical to that of real riding of a bicycle on the road.
A further object of the invention is to provide a bicycle simulator that will have a general structure that is substantially identical or at least very similar to that of a real bicycle.
A further object of the invention is to propose a bicycle simulator that can be produced with technologies similar to those normally used in the production of bicycles and that will be efficient and reliable in operation.
The above and further objects are achieved, according to the invention, by providing a bicycle simulator comprising a bicycle structure including a bicycle frame, a rear-wheel axle carried by the frame, a crank axle carried in a rotatable way by the frame and provided with cranks and corresponding pedals, a head tube carried by the frame and a steering shaft rotatably mounted in the head tube and carrying a fork, and a front-wheel axle carried by the fork, said bicycle simulator further comprising a front support and a rear support for supporting the bicycle simulator on a floor, said front and rear supports being associated, respectively, to the front-wheel axle and to the rear-wheel axle and having each a portion of contact with the floor shaped in such a way as to simulate the contact with the road of the wheel of a bicycle, at least one front flywheel rotatably mounted on said front-wheel axle, and motor means associated to said front flywheel for setting it in rotation in order to create a stabilizing gyroscopic effect, said crank axle being designed to impart a rotation on a driven member, which is independent of said front support and said rear support.
In a preferred embodiment, said front and rear supports are constituted by two static wheels, provided for resting on the floor.
Once again in the case of said preferred embodiment, the bicycle simulator comprises a rear flywheel supported in rotation on said rear-wheel axle and connected to said crank axle by a transmission, and moreover provided are means for braking rotation of said rear rotor.
Once again in the case of the preferred embodiment, said motor means associated to the front flywheel are constituted by an electric motor. Provided on board the bicycle simulator is a battery for supply of said electric motor for actuation of the front flywheel, and said rear flywheel is mechanically connected to an electric generator provided for recharging said battery.
The bicycle simulator according to the present invention is able to give the user a sensation altogether similar to that of real riding of a bicycle on the road. In the case of the preferred embodiment, rotation of the front flywheel can be activated, via the aforesaid motor means, also before the user climbs on the bicycle simulator, to facilitate him in finding a condition of balance even before he starts pedaling. Of course, when the user has started pedaling, the rotation impressed on the rear flywheel creates a gyroscopic effect that adds to the one caused by the front flywheel, further favouring balance. In any condition of use, the contact between the floor and the front and rear supporting wheels is altogether similar to the contact of the wheels of a normal bicycle with the road, except for the fact that said supporting wheels are stationary.
The invention can be produced so as to enable a non-totally static use of the bicycle, but rather a pseudo-static use, where said expression is used to indicate a condition in which the bicycle simulator advances by a distance of the order of centimeters or a few meters in the course of a training session. Said result is obtained, in the case of the preferred embodiment, thanks to the fact that the rear flywheel is made of metal material and that associated to the rear supporting wheel is at least one permanent magnet rigidly connected to said wheel, at a distance from the axle of the wheel, in such a way that rotation of the rear flywheel is transmitted to said rear supporting wheel with a very low transmission ratio, in such a way that, as has been said, the bicycle simulator has a pseudo-static behaviour, i.e., it advances along the floor by a distance of the order of centimeters or a few meters in the course of a training session. Preferably, the permanent magnet is fixed on the rear wheel at an adjustable distance from the plane of the flywheel to enable variation of said transmission ratio.
In a variant, the motor means are constituted by a mechanical transmission, for example with chains and/or belts, which connects the crank axle to the front flywheel. In this case, preferably, the rear flywheel is not envisaged. It is consequently the front flywheel itself that functions as member driven by the crank axle. Once again in the case of said variant, as likewise in the case of any other embodiment of the invention, there may be envisaged a pseudo-static operation of the bicycle simulator by associating to the crank axle a friction-driven roller, in contact with the peripheral edge of the static rear supporting wheel, in such a way as to transmit a very slow movement to said wheel (one degree of rotation of the rear supporting wheel every n revolutions of the pedal) with a very low transmission ratio so that said bicycle simulator presents the pseudo-static behaviour described above.
It is evident that the bicycle simulator according to the invention offers the user possibilities of exercise and pleasure that cannot be obtained with any of the bicycle simulators produced up to the present day. In addition, the bicycle simulator according to the invention presents the advantage that it can be derived with relatively simple and low-cost operations from a conventional bicycle structure.